Presents of Mind: The Book

By Leonard M. Roth

Presents of Mind: The Book is, at its core, a great romance destined for either obliteration by outside forces of great malice and overarching evil or an otherworldly miraculous tale of potential success in the face of unimaginable odds.

But let's start at the beginning of this great adventure.

Four billion light-years from Earth in an uncharted area of the universe is the planet Cryptx, which is mercilessly ruled by a draconian alien race that has enslaved the Cryptxian inhabitants of the planet. Scientists have been compelled to create a super chip that could bestow on the vile ruling power great, overarching powers. In a deadly, daring long-shot clandestine attack on the secret research facility, scientists steal the forbidden research they have been forced to create and escape the planet in pursuit of freedom. But have they truly escaped the planet and the Black Galactic Guard that cruelly polices Cryptx and protects the ruling party?

On Earth, Ralph Wenger, a young man who was seriously injured as a child in an accident where he lost his family, has been left mentally challenged and under the cruel care of a doctor/guardian in Atlanta, Georgia. In a backwoods area of Georgia, Ralph and the alien scientists inadvertently cross paths; and the stolen chip is temporarily implanted in the young man's brain solely to communicate with Ralph, setting in motion a momentous fight of good against evil and a love story for the ages between Ralph and a very skeptical beauty, Annie Pickering, a Georgia Tech student, heading back from Savannah to Atlanta to start her last semester.

The story careens and intertwines with a race against time by Ralph and Annie attempting to stay ahead of the profoundly evil, more powerful forces hell-bent on killing Ralph and all others in their way to retrieve the chip from Ralph's brain and to gain the wondrous powers the chip provides to the ultimate possessor.

Take the ride of a lifetime with Ralph and Annie as they come to grips with the otherworldly powers of the chip and the mind-numbing terror of impeded death at the hands of more powerful pursuers, requiring ingenuity and stealth to survive.

Ultimately, the question devolves to what the present from Cryptx means for Ralph's and Annie's future together--if, against all odds, they can live to enjoy it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 19, 2024
• ISBN: 9798886541687

Book preview

Presents of Mind

The Book

Leonard M. Roth

© Copyright 2023 Leonard M. Roth

All rights reserved

First Edition

Book Cover Design Copyright © 2023 by Leonard M. Roth

All rights reserved.

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-88654-170-0 (hc)

ISBN 979-8-88654-168-7 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

CHAPTER FIFTY

EPILOGUE ONE: TYING UP LOOSE ENDS

THE FINAL EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER ONE

THE BEGINNING—A DISTANT, DESPERATE THEFT

Space date on Cryptx: 00-012-073-000-2.

Four billion light-years from Earth, Cryptx, the twelfth planet orbiting a dying sun in the Dryptominian Galaxy, slowly rotated counterclockwise in the frigid darkness. Orbiting around Cryptx were her constant companion moons—the large ringed moon, Lectos, and the smaller moons, Andon and Portra. The moons provided scant light to the burgeoning population of Cryptx due to the distant decrepit sun that barely illuminated the planets circling it. Lectos slowly imperceptibly glided over the triumphant and monstrous 135-mile-high Barsdek Mountain Range. In the darkness of the immense Rhuhfeld Basin, the shadowed outline of the distant gigantic mountain range proved that there was ample evidence in the historical record of an ancient cataclysmic geological event and upheaval on Cryptx. At the top of Mt. Barsdek, the tallest peak in the range, like a giant platform, was the Theranst Plain upon which sat the huge foreboding Complex Antinean, the crypto-level secret government, military, and science research and development facility. One hundred fifty thousand workers and scientists slavishly served the draconian Cryptxian rulers, the Inner Circle's every whim at the complex. Seventy-five miles west of the Complex Antinean, the lights of the capital city of Sarnuum could be seen in the distance, where one hundred twenty-five million Cryptxians resided and presently slept. However, in those very early morning hours, the sleeping residents of Sarnuum could not possibly conjure up in their wildest dreams what was in the process of happening seventy-five miles to the east.

Eight face-covered figures dressed in black rigidly stood at the base of the mountain that led to the Theranst Plain. The men anxiously looked at one another and joined hands to show solidarity in the planned theft. The men then simultaneously glanced up the Ice Sheet, a nearly seven-hundred-thousand-foot huge granite and sheer ice cliff that was honed slick by the continuously raging billion-year-old waters of the ancient Klumptian Sea and later, after the sea evaporated, the superheated and sometimes super frigid 450-mile-per-hour winds and sandstorms that intermittently jetted across the Ice Sheet's face. The superheated winds made the occurrence of the murderous blasts predictably unpredictable in terms of timing, longevity, and velocity. Only serious insanity coupled with a sincere death wish would push a person to even consider the task of making the immensely dangerous effort to scale the mountain, especially at night. The men communicated through telepathy, and the tallest man was the leader of the insurgents. They gathered closely around him.

All right, men. I anticipate that some of us will not make it to the ship to escape. Actually, some of us will not make it to the plain. The path I have chosen for our ascent is shielded from view from the plain by a ledge about a mile below the plain. So our only fear up to the ledge is the horrific winds across the face of the mountain that could blow us to oblivion. To my knowledge, no one has ever succeeded in reaching the plain from this direction, which makes it extremely dangerous and also ideal as no one would expect it. Your timers have been set to vibrate every thirty minutes. Once we get to the ledge, we will hover underneath the ledge and wait for the guard stationed directly above us who is tasked with protecting the mountainside of Complex Antinean to begin his scan of the mountain for intruders coming up. Having to guard the mountainside of Complex Antinean is a laborious, frustrating, and thankless task for the assigned guard, and I doubt that he will spend much time looking down at the darkness. Once the guard leaves to continue his other rounds, we are free to race to the top and onto the plain and Antinean. So monitor your timers, and if you have a question, ask it now.

No questions were asked.

Then, men, let's get to it. And best of luck. There will be no communications on the ascent. The lights on the jet packs lit, and the shrouded men began to quickly rise up the Ice Sheet. Thirty seconds later, a massive gust of boiling wind lashed by the men as they attempted to grasp the Ice Sheet for protection. Three men were blown away to oblivion. The remaining five saboteurs relentlessly continued upwards. After nearly thirty minutes of silence, the five men had reached the eighteen-thousand-foot landmark. They each found outcropping on the face of the cliff and waited out the next explosion of hurling winds. When the winds again seared the face of the mountain, one more was lost, leaving four. The remainder continued and kept rising until the next blast. Only three were fortunate enough to find safety on the face of the mountain. The three remaining men hovered under the ledge. They gazed down into the black abyss they had successfully traversed and thought of the good men that they had lost. The leader brought them back to the task.

I will take a look around this outcropping and see if the guard is on the plain looking down in our direction.

The leader went to the edge of the ledge and looked up but zipped back to the two other men.

He is there looking down, so we need to wait until he leaves. I will check again in a few minutes.

The other men nodded in agreement. A few minutes of hovering passed, and the leader went to the edge again. He turned to the others.

All clear. Let's go! The surviving three glanced at each other and jetted up the last twelve thousand feet to the Great Horden Indent of the Theranst Plain. The legend had proven true; the searing winds prevailed. Hands found no purchase in attempting to climb the frozen monolith of Cryptx.

The shrouded figures—one tall and thin, one shorter and much more corpulent, and the third man was normal height and average weight for a Cryptxian male—clandestinely and clearly unprofessionally, zigzagged between and around the myriad boulders that stood as cold, angry sentinels on the Great Horden Indent. The security lights surrounding the Complex Antinean flickered ahead and semi-illuminated the grounds of the dark, futuristic, forty-story-high, thirteen-miles-in-area complex. Landing strips radiated from various sections of the structure like moonbeams. Rotating spotlights at the top of the Complex Antinean routinely shot a wide, brilliantly bright ray of light through the darkness. The lone and lonely sentinel, whose back was to the Ice Sheet, steadfastly maintained his position next to one boulder overlooking the distant Complex and kept a diligent lookout toward the facility, never conceiving of an assault from the Ice Sheet behind him, as the randomly appearing superwinds always abruptly occurred and swept even the most adventurous jet pack intruders to their death. That fact left the number of lunatics willing to brave the ascent of the Ice Sheet infinitesimally small and security-wise, insignificant.

The tallest man, Dr. Cor, stealthily approached the guard and grabbed the guard from behind. Cor forcefully jammed a cloth to the man's nose and mouth and guided the drugged guard backward and slowly, carefully dropped the guard silently to the ground. Crouching, the men scrutinized the most direct path to the complex and carefully advanced toward the building.

Dr. Cor removed his jet pack and placed it on the ground. He detached a briefcase from his belt and slung the briefcase onto his back. Dr. Myr dislodged his jet pack and the bulky black backpack that had been attached to the jet pack on the flight up to the plain. He put the backpack on his back, and that action caused him to strain against the weight as he moved forward. The remaining one, Dr. Zam, dropped his jet pack and pulled a strange curved tool from his coat and snapped the device into the latch on a concealed plate near the base of the Antinean structure. Dr. Zam carefully turned the tool exactly ninety degrees, unlocking the plate. He lifted the metallic hatch cover. Zam glanced at Cor and Myr, who nodded in agreement to proceed. Under the hatch was an elaborate security alarm mechanism embedded in stone. Multicolored lights blinked frenetically on the secret panel. Dr. Zam punched in a series of keys on a keypad at the top of the alarm, and the monitor showed unrecognizable symbols. The cover to the mechanism sprang open. Dr. Zam quickly yet meticulously reprogrammed the security system and reached out to Dr. Cor. Dr. Cor removed his briefcase from his back, laid it on the ground and opened the briefcase. Cor quickly extricated a small, flattened, egg-shaped object from the briefcase. Like a surgical nurse, Cor slapped the object into the outstretched hand of Dr. Zam who feverishly connected the object to the security system.

A switch on the object was flipped. A massive, obscured door to the building complex slid open approximately two feet, which allowed a narrow rectangular beam of light to escape from the interior of the building, illuminating the foreground and the covered faces of the three men. No alarm sounded due to Zam's handiwork.

Each uncovered portion of the intruders' masked faces showed three horizontal glowing eyes. Drs. Zam, Myr, and Cor scurried inside the building, and the door closed behind them without a sound, again leaving the outside perimeter of the building as dark as death.

Once inside the structure, Cor, Myr, and Zam found their way to the Top Secret Complex Antinean Bio-Mech Labs. Cor and Zam quickly removed and hid their boots. Myr did not remove his boots because his task in the illicit caper required running and he would not have time to put his boots back on at the end of the race. They stealthily moved down the labyrinth of narrow all white corridors and periodically intersecting corridors with a seemingly endless series of unmarked, identical white doors. They arrived at one of the innocuous doors and stopped at a keypad on the wall. Dr. Zam tapped in a code, and the door opened like an airlock, emitting only the minimal hiss of equalizing pressures between the corridor and the room. They raced up the enclosed stairwell to the third floor. It was obvious that Dr. Zam, Dr. Myr, and Dr. Cor were very familiar with the building. They turned a corner and came face-to-face with a reflective large sign with lettering that was a cross between geometric design and hieroglyphics. Cor looked at Zam, perplexed. Zam whispered to Cor, You have not seen this sign in special code language. It says, ‘Top Security Clearance Required to Proceed Beyond This Point. Violators will be instantly terminated. Black Galactic Guard Capital Edict 12976A.'

Myr, go set your explosives, said Cor. We will take what we must, but this facility must be destroyed, and your expertise in armaments and explosives needs to be activated. So go and disperse what you brought so that Antinean will be mist after we leave. What is the setting on the timers?

Myr reached into the backpack and pulled out a rectangular explosive device.

I am now setting all of these explosives for twenty minutes, starting now.

Myr pressed a button on the bomb in his hand, and a red light went on.

They are now all on and ready. I will see you and Zam at the exit. Good luck, my comrades. We must stop these diabolical maniacs and leave for freedom, now, very quickly.

Myr tossed a bomb down the corridor and ran out of sight of the other two as he dispersed explosives throughout Antinean.

Dr. Cor and Dr. Zam tremulously glanced at each other then raced to the end of the hall. Dr. Cor and Zam skidded to a stop and stood pensively before the door at the end of the hallway. Both were now out of breath, but Zam, the heavier of the two, was seriously winded. He bent at the waist with his hands on his knees. Expressionless, Dr. Cor furtively glanced at Dr. Zam, and Zam, exhausted, nodded. Cor pulled a rectangular silver key from his coat pocket, inserted the key in the door, and the door swung open, revealing a sophisticated scientific lab filled with strange apparatuses. They quietly rushed to an innocuous white wall, where a safe-like inset compartment was revealed. Dr. Cor stepped up to a machine attached to the wall and reached out to have his fingerprints and retina analyzed for security purposes. The compartment door silently swung open. They looked inside. The 4A-1 Sartok Chip rested on a clear glass podium. They stared reverentially at the chip for a few seconds, then Dr. Cor pressed a button on the side of the compartment and reached in with padded tweezers. Cor retrieved the chip and carefully placed it inside a sterile packet that he hid in a concealed pouch within the briefcase. After the case was closed and locked, Dr. Cor softly patted the briefcase and smiled. Dr. Zam did not smile but pointed to his watch, denoting the urgency of the situation. Cor nodded.

As the men escaped the lab, Dr. Zam abruptly stopped and grabbed Cor's arm, yanking him to a halt. Zam pointed to a sign on a door adjacent to the lab that identified the location in the same cryptic Cryptx lettering, which they both knew as a parenthetical translation of The Advanced Parsec Research Lab. Dr. Zam held his hand out for Cor's rectangular key, and Dr. Cor initially shook his head no then reluctantly handed the key over to Zam. Dr. Zam inserted the key into the lock, typed in information, and his fingerprint and retina were scanned. Zam and Cor hurriedly walked through the opening door and approached an open glass case. On a cushion in the case was a nine-inch-by-three-inch-by-two-inch rectangular black object, with four coaxial connectors protruding from each side: the experimental, Parsec X2-A-100, Galactic Accelerator. Dr. Zam grabbed the accelerator without pressing the security disengage button on the side of the case and blaring alarms sound. Dr. Zam jammed the accelerator into his coat pocket.

As the piercing sirens shrieked out the existence of intruders, Dr. Zam and Dr. Cor fled down the stairs and slammed through the door to the main hallway. Dr. Cor screamed epithets at Dr. Zam for his stupidity and carelessness as they raced down the stark white corridors. They jammed on their boots and came to a screeching stop at the last barrier to escape. They both looked at their synchronized timers. Eight minutes remained before the facility would explode.

Where in the hell is Myr! screamed Cor.

Either he is dead or has lost track of time! We must leave, Cor! Myr knew and understood what was at stake here! He set the timers! We cannot wait for him! screamed Zam. We have no choice!

The great door to the Complex swung open and shut, allowing the escape of Cor and Zam, as they disappeared into the darkness and boulders, heading for their jet packs. Had witnesses been present at the scene, they would have seen the lights on the two jet packs light and zoom northward on the Theranst Plain. To the south, myriad lights from the sky and from the ground were converging on the complex and the surrounding grounds. Thereafter, the two doctors left the Theranst Plain and hurtled down the mountain several seconds before Complex Antinean became a supernova awakening the galaxy and disintegrating into nothingness. The tremendous blast wave stripped the plain, but the two thieves were unaffected as they were nearing the base of the mountain and racing toward the awaiting hidden purloined ship that was the salvation for the intrepid thieves' escape. Within a moment of superhot winds traveling at thousands of miles per second, conspicuous and total silence returned to the Theranst Plain.

But before the blast…

Minutes passed.

Somewhere, hundreds of yards from the exit, Myr abruptly stopped his gleeful, expert dissemination of the nuclear devices. He looked at the timer on the device in his hand. Twenty seconds. The backpack was now empty, and he dropped it to the floor. The explosive device in his hand was the last one. Myr smiled a knowing smile. He looked around the stark white interior of the building where he had been forced to work for the unbearable Inner Circle, the homicidal tyrant, General Gra, and for his Black Galactic Guard as a munitions expert to wreak annihilation on the Inner Circle's perceived enemies on Cryptx and elsewhere. He was not of Pod 62943 in Lab X-27, and freedom was not biologically engrained in his very being, but he had learned of freedom from Cor and Zam and also wanted it for himself. He looked at the timer—ten seconds—and thoughts began to hurriedly swirl and stream.

Well, good luck, my friends. I hope you are safely out of Antinean and are well on your way to the ship and out of harm's way. I did my assigned job, as always. Take—

And the conflagration instantaneously consumed Myr, violently tearing and churning him down to subatomic particles, and those particles became an infinitesimal part of what had been Complex Antinean and the blast wave. Myr had always been a bit verbose.

CHAPTER TWO

THE ESCAPE

Space date on Cryptx: 00-012-073-000-2.4.

Dr. Zam and Cor zoomed onto the scene and frantically rushed around and into the ship like in an ancient exciting movie at double speed, making the ship ready for takeoff. Dr. Zam looked out a porthole and saw hundreds of wavering bright lights quickly approaching the ship. It would only be a matter of minutes until the Black Galactic Guard overtook the ship and they were killed. Cor approached the porthole and turned to Zam.

Zam, I prayed every night to Hunami Rohino for forgiveness for what we were about to do and now have done and will do for the search for freedom from persecution. I prayed for justice, amnesty, and forgiveness for our past, present, and impending sins. I prayed to be safe from a death sentence, cried Cor.

Hunami Rohino has no control over our fate after what we have done and are about to do in terms of the carnage we have inflicted and will inflict, as well as the devastating destruction we have directed as we defiled all the laws of Cryptx that we swore to uphold, protect, and preserve. But I believe we will find other more forgiving gods in the place we are going to beseech forgiveness. We will turn away from the deity of Cryptx, Hunami Rohino, and start anew in a wonderful accepting new world. And as far as the death sentence…we have committed hundreds of capital punishment crimes. So we should consider ourselves dead and just hope for the best. Good luck, my friend. Very sorry, Myr. Rest in peace, said Zam. Enough of this, Cor! We have to leave now!

Dr. Cor looked out a porthole and saw the hundreds of lights within 300 yards of the ship. It was less than several minutes before they would be overtaken and killed.

Dr. Cor turned to Dr. Zam.

Quick, Zam, they're coming. You are the physicist that created this new Parsec accelerator—connect the damned thing now! If we are caught, we and our families will pay with our lives for your unthinking adventurism. It was your idea to stop and grab the accelerator, said Cor. We were there to take the chip and nothing else.

Yes, and you created and had to have the Sartok chip, responded Zam. You created that monstrous device to control our people, Cor.

Zam again looked out to see the lights getting closer.

We don't have time to argue here, Cor, said Zam.

You knew, Zam, that the earlier versions of the chip in the hands of the Black Galactic Guard have subjugated our people for hundreds of years, said Cor. We had been forced to create the 4A by threat that our families would be destroyed, and…and, now, this new model, the 4A-1, the Sartok, would destroy us all. Its uses are so advanced…far beyond the 3A and 4A. This 4A-1 version has critical military and political implications, Zam. Every hour of every day for thousands of hours, I was forced by an omnipresent Elite Black Galactic Guard officer to create this Sartok chip on the pain of death for me and my family, so yes, I involuntarily helped create it, but now that I know its full potential to do great harm, I won't let the Sartok fall into the hands of General Gra or his Black Galactic Guard's hands, nor will I allow this new, geometrically enhanced chip to reach the clutches of The Inner Circle. I will make no excuses for my actions in taking the chip. And, don't forget about your irresponsible snatch of the accelerator! All those lights out there wouldn't be coming toward us, if you had just followed procedures and remembered the security protocols.

Zam disconnected the old accelerator, connected the new accelerator and shoved it back into the empty space in the control panel. He began to punch in data on a computer keyboard. The monitor came alive, as rows and rows of information flashed across the screen. Zam studied the screen and punched some additional data into the onboard computer.

Let's get our heads straight, Zam, said Cor. We are out of time. Besides, now the advanced accelerator is our only chance to escape our draconian existence and flee far away. The Black Galactic Guard is at our door. Hurry, we have no time. I hope you stole a reliable ship here. I am very sorry we lost Myr, Dru, Ryl, and the others on the climb and at Antinean. But we all knew the risks and rewards of this plan, and we all implied consent to the actions taken. We had each made our peace with our families and ourselves.

Yes, they did know the risks, but here we are, Cor, the two remaining traitorous thieves in a stolen ship, a pilfered top-secret chip, and an experimental, untested super accelerator. Why should we worry? asked Zam.

Gauges were set. Computer screens were double-checked. Buttons were pushed. The ship blasted off into the universal darkness. Those approaching security personnel on the ground were incinerated in the escape. Zam looked back at the devastation from the warp engine's backflash.

Good. Our oppressed prior life is unquestionably behind us. Let's get into the suspended animation tanks before we hit hyper-warp, which will occur in less than thirty seconds, said Zam.

I hope you selected a good place for us, my friend, said Cor. It will be a very long ride into this new life—even at one hundred thousand times the speed of light—that is, if your new Parsec Accelerator even works.

Oh, it will work, Cor. And, Cor, it's the only one of its kind. Even General Gra has not seen its capabilities, remarked Zam. And, as to the place, the destination, it was selected by a secret computer system that analyzed all known planets in the universe that meet our requirements to survive and thrive. The computer installed all of the information into the ship's computers. The best planet for us was selected. I then deleted all records of the search so no one could access it and destroyed the hard drive. The information secured was never backed up, so, we are home free.

Good. Now, get into your chamber, Zam. See you on the other side, said Cor.

They took one last look at Cryptx, the place of their creation.

I hope we are going to a better place, said Cor.

We are definitely going to a better place, said Zam. A place of freedom and liberty.

I truly hope so, said Cor.

Both men climbed into their suspended animation bays for the long flight to freedom. The covers on the bays closed, locked, and sealed as the life-extending gases flowed into each chamber.

Never in a million years could the hurriedly escaping scientists ever envision that they would play a part in changing another world.

CHAPTER THREE

THE CRYPTXIAN HISTORY OF COR AND ZAM

On the planet Cryptx, for over a thousand years, workers were produced in a governmental lab created by and for the Inner Circle, the rulers of Cryptx. Each worker was programmed with the skills necessary for the advancement of the society created by the Inner Circle. All special workers, the doctors, lawyers, scientists, and engineers were manufactured in Pod 62943 in Lab X-27 at the Complex Antinean facility. The twenty permanent members of the Inner Circle were not originally from Cryptx but were from another much more advanced, much more aggressive planet of warriors from Rustilla Majora of the Porlectic Constellation to be found in an unknown portion of the ever-increasing universe. The Inner Circle was designated to rule planets conquered by the Rustilla Majoran military. Over the centuries, the Inner Circle was not elected. All twenty positions on the Inner Circle were hereditary, life-tenured, and limited to males; all eldest male progeny of the original Inner Circle took their parents' place on the death of the parent.

Once a worker was created to fill a particular need of Cryptx and became skilled in a particular job or field, a family, a spouse of sorts, and children would be created for each worker. Into the mix creating the worker, the Inner Circle chemically factored in and implanted the relevant emotions of each worker. The over-arching emotion implanted was a complete, unwavering commitment to the Inner Circle and, to a lesser degree, the implanted commitment of the worker to the created family of that worker. This lesser commitment to family was a way to enhance and leverage the overriding commitment to the Inner Circle because it was universally known that the worker's family could be instantly taken away by the whim of the Inner Circle at any time and for any reason. Once that natural, inherent familial connection blossomed and was hermetically sealed between the worker and his or her family, the worker would be worked to death for the Inner Circle and its diabolical purposes and programs.

The system created by the Inner Circle was controlled by the overwhelmingly brutal malevolence and the rabid, devotional loyalty of the Black Galactic Guard to General Gra, the supreme commander of the Black Galactic Guard. Each commando of the Black Galactic Guard had this absolute, unconditional loyalty to Gra programmed into their genes at creation. The Black Galactic Guard commandoes were the secret police of the Inner Circle of Cryptx. All members of the Black Galactic Guard, except General Gra, came from the mix in Pod 79403 in LabX-42. This Cryptxian police force was also staffed by professional mercenaries from other galaxies, completely loyal to the members of the Inner Circle and its plan for complete domination of the populous of Cryptx.

The members of the Inner Circle controlled all aspects of life on Cryptx. The Inner Circle was controlled by one member who had complete and final authority over every aspect of the Inner Circle and its decisions—the chairman, so to speak—who was never seen or heard by the public and was known only in whispers as the Ascendant. For want of a better term, on Cryptx, the Ascendant was God.

The meteoric rise of General Gra through the ranks of the Cryptxian Black Galactic Guard was no surprise as Gra was technically and theoretically related to the Ascendant. Though it was generally perceived that Gra could be instantly removed from life by the Ascendant, that possibility was considered remote due to their seemingly mystical familial connection. No one alive ever questioned the Ascendant's power to give General Gra a break for intentional or reckless misdeeds or gross malfeasance or institutional maleficence within the Guard. Every soldier or commando within the Black Galactic Guard swore total allegiance to Gra, the Black Galactic Guard, the Inner Circle, and the Ascendant. Any act of disloyalty to this powerful quartet of entities and individuals was met with instant annihilation. The whimsical proposition that the created population could or would rise up for any reason against the power of the Inner Circle was extremely remote and clearly preposterous.

Yet…in the bubbling materials creating the primordial scientific workers in Pod 62943 in LabX-27, rebellious high-level scientists had surreptitiously slipped into the genetic mix of the to-be-formed special worker creations, something new and disruptive to the Inner Circle's draconian plan: the unheard-of, unfathomable desire and the unquenchable thirst for freedom and liberty. Two of the workers created in Pod 62943 in Lab X-27 were the programmed scientists, Zam and Cor, and others being groomed to be the best and the brightest of those destined to be the critical scientists of Cryptx.

But the ultimate problem for the Inner Circle with the best and brightest was that the best and brightest always inherently thought, wondered, explored, and learned about the mystical ideas of freedom, liberty, justice, personal choice, and the concomitant obligation of personal responsibility for one's actions of all in the universe with those rights and obligations. No other Pod was infused with that additional set of emotional ingredients, so it was the most important critical workers on Cryptx with the burning desire for freedom. It did not matter to the best and brightest, known colloquially by the scientists as the B&B, that they were each an experiment, born in a large petri dish, harvested, and run through an artificial intelligence deep learning chip filled to the brim with digital apps holding the knowledge of the universe. The Inner Circle's methodical system of populating the entire workforce of Cryptx with servility was all accomplished by their terrifying compulsion to control the populous and make them docile and subservient to the whims of the Inner Circle. The infused B&B were the irrevocable festering flies in the Cryptxian Inner Circle's ointment.

The theft of the accelerator and the Sartok chip would be the ultimate unintended consequence of the creation of a new breed of scientists by the B&B. The Inner Circle, at the plot's beginning, had no idea why that batch was so extraordinary in their scientific accomplishments; but the B&B's glowing and growing status in the lifeblood of the Inner Circle came from the scientists and, in particular, the beyond-brilliant Dr. Cor. Through the years, Cor stood out as the leader of the scientist batch of Pod 62943 in Lab X-27.

The B&B learned the concept of freedom from the original enslaved survivors of the free planets Cryptx conquered. Over time, the desire for freedom blossomed and became ingrained in the created scientists' very being. Eventually, those scientists wanted—no, silently demanded—to be free and to have the right to self-determination, which were unknown, because there were no inalienable rights on Cryptx. With respect to the Inner Circle, no grievances were redressed, and no demands could be voiced. Yet the scientists continued to learn and they yearned to be free. When the Inner Circle realized they were being attacked from within and identified the threat, they declared this new-found longing to be treason and sedition and began to hunt down the original transgressors and their families and publicly executed them. The executions were barbaric in the disembowelment and the setting ablaze of every man, woman, and child rounded up by the Ascendant for the entertainment pleasure of the Inner Circle members. The gruesomeness of this cruel display provoked fear in the populace and in the scientists created by those now-destroyed original creators and mixers of the top-secret brew in Pod 62943 in Lab X-27. Those vivid acts of governmental malice were done exclusively to terrorize those that the Ascendant was determined to interrogate into a confession and slaughter.

The scientific members of the B&B were a very close group and they sublimated their feelings regarding freedom because their lives and the lives of their families depended on complete and total secrecy. The eight members of the best and brightest were Dr. Cor, Dr. Zam, Dr. Myr, Dr. Dru, Dr. Ryl, Dr. Tyx, Dr. Str, and Dr. Orp. They were the scientists attempting to scale the Ice Sheet to reach Complex Antinean and escape Cryptx.

But before that dangerous mission, word reached the Inner Circle that something was amiss among the many scientists on Cryptx, and especially among the scientists from Pod 62943 in Lab X-27. An investigation was commenced, led by the Ascendant, the omnipotent, omnipresent, divine right lead commissioner of the Inner Circle—a mysterious godlike creature from the aristocracy of Rustilla Majora who ruled Cryptx and the Inner Circle sometimes irrationally and sometimes whimsically with an iron fist. Never knowing at any given moment whether the Ascendant was benevolent or insane produced well-deserved terror on Cryptx. Several sayings were told and retold, and with that repetition over thousands of years, eventually, the sayings became legendary Cryptxian folklore. Several predominant axioms were if you looked upon the face of the Ascendant, you would die, and no one could hide the truth from the Ascendant, if the truth was demanded by the Ascendant. So, in general, the Ascendant was perceived to be an unseen force to be avoided like Medusa.

The B&B secretly met to plan how they were going to try and avoid total destruction. With their considerable mental acuity, no plan could be found. After all, the greatest lie detector in the universe was the Ascendant. They were certainly doomed.

On the day of the interrogation and probable public execution, every Cryptxian scientist was brought to the immense Government Center in Sarnuum. Each Cryptxian scientist was led in individually to confront the Ascendant. Cor was first. The Ascendant asked about his feelings regarding freedom. The Ascendant stared at Cor so intently that Cor felt his brain being invaded. Yet when Cor answered that he had no feelings about freedom and that it was forbidden and that his loyalty to Cryptx, the Inner Circle, and the Ascendant was complete and untarnished, the Ascendant grabbed him and drew him close to the Ascendant's face that was now red with fury. But Cor was let go without further harm. Cor would later discover that also layered into the mix creating the desire for freedom was an additional gift that was foreign to Cryptx—the ability to expertly prevaricate, to appear totally truthful when outright in-your-face lying. It was a necessary trait when trying to navigate and survive in a maleficent authoritarian world. Cor was as surprised as anyone with this remarkable unforeseen gift at that terribly dangerous moment with the Ascendant. He was hopeful that his allies had the same gift and that the ability to be a seasoned fabulist would spontaneously, miraculously appear when needed during their interrogations by the Ascendant. As Cor left the room, he smiled and nodded to the awaiting others, telepathically transmitting the news of the gift and putting the others at ease in approaching what they were all facing. After many hours of waiting, the other B&Bs came through unscathed, but the others that came from other pods were executed along with their families. However, the B&B knew they were marked for death as they were very tightly watched by the Black Galactic Guard. They understood it was just a matter of time before it was their turn to die and simultaneously new scientists were being produced to replace them. This personal foreshadowing of future events led to the daring attempt on the Ice Sheet.

Because of the Inner Circle's decision to destroy the malfunctioning creations from Pod 62943, the progeny of Pod 62943 decided to take the ultimate fruits of their labor, the fastest accelerator in the universe, the most fantastic chip in the universe, and escape from Cryptx. The scientists of Pod 62943 did not secretly think their rebellion was treason or sedition. Among the group, they referred to it as the yearning. But the concept of freedom was lost on every other lab creation of the Pods, and, even though exonerated of treason, the scientists were still shunned, and the rest of Cryptxian society collaborated with the Black Galactic Guard to find and kill the tainted scientists.

Eventually, Dr. Zam and Dr. Cor rose in prominence over the other creations in Pod 62943, and Zam became the preeminent leader of the Parsec Mechanics Unit, and Cor led the Microbiological Physics Unit. Both were assigned to the Complex Antinean to do research on special assignments. Zam focused on the enhancement of the Parsec Accelerator pushing the envelope on exceeding the speed of light beyond all known parameters, and Cor focused on a new chip, the Sartok Chip that could secretly enhance the powers of the Inner Circle beyond all that was imaginable to solidify their control of the Cryptxian population.

As each scientist progressed further and further toward their goals in their assigned tasks, their paranoia grew and the secret plan to revolt against the Ascendant, General Gra, and the Black Galactic Guard was born.

Each insurrectionist met with each other, and each participant in the plot met with their families to plan their escape from Cryptx.

Breaking into the Complex Antinean and stealing the advanced accelerator and the new, advanced Sartok chip was the first step to freedom. All the men were ready and knew the risks of taking that first step up the sheer face of the mountain to glory or doom.

CHAPTER FOUR

RALPH

April 3rd. Earth date. Morning. Atlanta Hospital for Severe Cranial Trauma.

The red brick exterior of the Atlanta Hospital for Severe Cranial Trauma served as a testament to the extraordinary care of local patients in northern Georgia with brain injuries. When a visitor to the Atlanta Hospital for Severe Cranial Trauma entered the immaculate entryway of the six-story modern structure, the hospital and its staff seemed empathetically committed to the gentle care of seriously injured trauma patients. Visitors would be struck and impressed by the beautiful and comfortable surroundings with leather couches, mahogany end tables, and bright but inoffensive lighting that illuminated the fine art adorning the lobby walls.

An eager but not aggressive, well-trained customer service staff member was present to answer any questions of the visitor. The visitor would be allowed to see the second floor of the facility with the large office of the CEO of the hospital, Dr. Eugene Willis Carruthers, with diploma-covered walls and dark-wood bookshelves filled with medical tomes. Carruthers's large curved dark mahogany desk and credenza were expertly covered with beveled glistening glass. Behind the credenza were twenty feet of spotless windows. There would be many pictures of Carruthers with Georgia and Atlanta dignitaries and smiling patients and their grateful families. There would